Chip Kelly explains why he disclosed quarterback change on Tuesday

Say what you will about 49ers coach Chip Kelly, he’s incredibly transparent. On Thursday, he explained why he chose transparency regarding the recent change in quarterback.

In response to a question regarding his reason for not concealing his plan at quarterback until the weekend, Kelly explained that it wouldn’t have worked.

“Well, I think we live in a society, number one, that there are no secrets,” Kelly told reporters. “So, if Colin took all the reps with the ones on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, somebody’s ‘mole’ would have told them who was taking all the reps, you know what I mean? And I don’t really care. We have two similar quarterbacks. Our offense doesn’t change. I don’t think you’re going to outsmart people in the National Football League where all of a sudden if the second quarterback’s playing that Rex [Ryan] is going to tear up his game plan and say, ‘We’re screwed. We have no idea how to defend him.’

‘People way over-analyze the whole thing. You ask me a question. I’m going to tell you an answer. You ask me who our quarterback is. I’m going to tell you who our quarterback is. Our quarterback maneuver was made on Tuesday then our quarterback will be announced on Tuesday. So, I don’t buy that whole ‘stick the banana in the tailpipe and try to tell them the car is broken.’ It is what it is. We made the maneuver on Tuesday. I’ll announce it on Tuesday.”

Kelly gets bonus points for making the “banana in the tailpipe” reference, even if he butchered it a little bit. The bigger question is whether Kaepernick’s presence will un-butcher an offense that isn’t working.

On that point, Kelly was pressed to explain whether his Tuesday comments about the necessity of a quarterback change in an effort to improve the offense because the offense otherwise lacks the depth necessary to make meaningful changes at other positions.

“You guys are digging deep here, huh?” Kelly said. “If you look at every position we have on offense, we rotate. So all three running backs play. If five receivers are up, they play. All three tight ends play. We’re rotating our offensive line. The only position you don’t rotate on the offensive side of the ball is quarterback. So, when I said that’s the only maneuver you could make, it’s not like ‘Well geez, [running back] Carlos [Hyde] isn’t playing well.’ Well Shaun Draughn plays, Mike Davis plays. [Tight end] Blake Bell plays. Garrett Celek plays. Vance McDonald plays. We rotate six offensive linemen. The only position that had not been rotated on the offensive side of the ball was the quarterback spot. So, that’s what I said. What are you going to do? The only position we hadn’t made a move at was quarterback.”

The move has now been made, and the next question is whether the offense will run well, or whether it will behave as if it has a banana in the tailpipe.

9ers are middle of the pack in points scored this year. Exactly 1 point per game less on average than Kelly’s Eagles managed through the first 5 games a year ago under Sam Bradford. With much more offensive talent, and most of them aside from Bradford having had a couple years in his system. On the other hand the team is much worst defensively than the 2015 Eagles, and near the bottom of the league in points allowed. So, of course it must be the fault of the quarterback.

This guy needs to go back to college ball. He can be great when he recruits players that are a step above the competition. When its the NFL and the talent level is closer to even, even these little things can matter. This was a failed experiment in Philly and poor SF is going to be failure number 2. Knowing how dumb some franchises are, he will probably get a shot at number 3 before its all over.

The fact that Kelly actually has to explain this to the fans and media is pretty embarrassing. The public would have known even before Kaepernick took all the practice reps. One of the coaches, or someone inside the building, or even Trent Baalke’s daughter would have told us.

Except most of the skilled position players weren’t with Kelly for multiple seasons. Murray, Ryan Mathews, and Agholar were all in their first season with Kelly like Bradford was. He jettisoned Evan Mathis off of the Offensive Line, and a rotating cast of players were left to pick up that void. Even Jordan Matthews was only in his 2nd NFL season last year. Most of the skilled position players, including the QB, were in the same position the 49ers are now. How difficult is it to learn a system that only runs 5 plays.